Chapter Three'Search for the Oldest Person Alive'

Towards the end of his third year verifying world records for the Guinness book, Sean was given a task which was to prove inconclusive to include as a record in its first publication. Sean had been asked to try to find the oldest person alive. This involved him interviewing seven people, all living thousands of miles apart and each one claiming to be 'the oldest person in the world'. There were five women and two men to check out.

Now, just as the fastest runner of the hundred yards or metres attracts more public interest than the fastest runner of any other sporting distance, similar nuances of the public seem to have a greater preoccupation and interest in 'age' as opposed to any other characteristic. So, while the 'Guinness Book Of Records' religiously sought to include as many record activities and conditions that it was informed of, one record from the start always seemed to attract the greatest interest of the public: 'Who was the oldest person in the world?' It was as though such a person had discovered the fountain of eternal youth and everyone alive wanted to learn their secret of longevity. Sir Hugh Beaver was determined to include this record in the published edition, if at all possible.

Sean looked at the seven different claims for being the world's oldest person. One woman in China claimed to be 106 years old. There was a man in Russia who said he was 121 and one woman in Manchuria that professed to being over 110 years. Another woman in Morocco was reputed to be 115 years of age and there was a man in India who had lived in a cave for over a hundred years, but it wasn't known how old he was when he entered it! There were also two sisters from America who were allegedly twins aged 109 years who each claimed they were older than the other by at least two weeks!

It took Sean almost one year to interview and verify the claims of these seven people. Some claims were easier to dismiss when certain discrepancies became more apparent. The twins turned out to be over twenty years younger than they had each claimed to be and during the course of his investigation of their claim, Sean discovered that they didn't even share the same parentage. Whoever had managed to find the 'Fountain of Youth', it hadn't been these two suspicious spinsters! Another two turned out to be clever fakes and their claims were instantly dismissed. Another claimant had been greatly mistaken through having been misinformed, and although the other claimants seemed genuine, one had no birth certificate and while the other one did, it could not be proved that it was indeed his. The one that seemed to be the oldest was the man from Russia who was known as Erop Borowski, but this claim was not one that could be substantiated beyond all shadow of doubt. It threw up some facts that required more checking out and researching by Sean.

Erop Borowski told Sean that he was the youngest in a family of four siblings and the only surviving family member. He provided general details of his earlier life experiences, which included having been a young soldier of seventeen years who had seen battle in The Crimean War, between 1853-56. Sean was told that with the exception of his mother (who was killed in an accident), his father, Ivan and two brothers, Ahtoh and Aptyp and older sister, Alena, had all been killed in the battlefields near Scutari, serving their country in the Crimean War. His mother had seemingly been killed outside the family home by an out-of-control oxen cart when it hit a pothole and a sack of wheat fell off and crushed her to death. He said that his sister, who was stated to be nine years older than he was, to have been a nurse aged twenty-nine, when the platoon she was with was overrun and she was killed mercilessly by the British Hussars.

As Sean spoke to the Russian claimant, the old soldier drank from an old tin mug that was stated to be the only family heirloom he possessed. His father had reportedly provided all four of his children with their own tin mug to take to war with them; each one having been crudely punched with the first letter of their Christian name by him in his work shed.

Erop said that as a child, he and his family had grown up in poverty. He said that they shared the house that they lived in with another family and that had it not been for been for his father being able to work in the garden shed repairing this and that to make a few extra roubles and grow a few flowers and vegetables to sell, he doesn't know how all four brothers and sisters would have survived until the outbreak of the war.

During examination into his Crimean War research, Sean managed to obtain birth records of all of the Borowski children from Russian documents and found evidence that the claimant was indeed 121 years old; 'if he was in fact Erop Borowski', the man he claimed to be.It wasn't unknown for a soldier who'd deserted the field of battle to steal and assume the identity of another dead soldier after the battle was over.He also discovered that the father, Ivan and his two brothers, Ahtoh and Aptyp had indeed served in the Russian Army during the Crimean War years. However, he could find no mention of a Nurse Alena Borowski, who had served at Scutari between 1853-56. This was not unusual though, as it was often impossible to secure records, particularly when many weren't kept during the 1850s.

Sean was about to leave the matter there when after making further investigation, he discovered the name Alena Borowski on the staff of the British nurses at Scutari. This nurse had served under the famous Florence Nightingale and had been cited and recommended for an award. It was recorded that while under extreme enemy attack, when all other soldiers and army personnel had retreated, Nurse Alena remained to tend to the wounds and sufferings of over seventy four men who were close to death. She'd been cited to receive a medal for valour above and beyond the call of duty, but no record of her ever receiving one was found by Sean.

It was here that the trail got cold until, quite by chance, and after searching through the old newspaper archives of the London press editions in the 1850s, Sean acquired another possible lead of inquiry. The old London newspaper cutting of one hundred years earlier referred to the wedding between Lord Harrowby-Friggs and a Balkan society belle called Miss Alena Borows.

Lord Harrowby-Friggs' wife was described as being a war hero from the nursing ranks of the Crimean War, aged in her late twenties. The bride was said to have served in the war with distinction, having successfully nursed soldiers under heavy attack and offered the suffering succour as they died in her arms with terrible war wounds.

Lord Harrowby-Friggs was said to own estates in Surrey, Sussex and County Wicklow in Ireland. When he wasn't travelling in Europe, he reportedly shared his time between Ireland and England; residing in his country mansion in Ireland for half of each year and on his Surrey Estate for the other half. It was said however, that he preferred the family estate of Harrowby Castle in County Wicklow the best of all for its horse riding, game shooting and fresh-water fishing.

After returning to search every archive in Ireland that might throw some light upon the late Lord Harrowby-Friggs and his Balkan bride, Sean discovered that the couple had bought an old castle and its grounds near County Waterford in 1891, three years before the death of Lord Harrowby-Friggs. After he had died in 1894, the Waterford Estate and Harrowby Castle in County Wicklow were sold off. There was no mention or record of Lady Harrowby-Friggs after that date, but it was rumoured that she had died somewhere in Europe of a broken heart. There were no children born to the union, due to some family condition on Lord Harrowby-Friggs' side. His love of horses, game hunting, fishing and travelling Europe was said to been a good substitute.

Sean was too much of a journalist not to know that the number of facts that seemed to fit was much more than ones that suggested mere coincidence. He knew that there couldn't have been too many women serving in the Crimean War with British nursing connections and with a Balkan/Russian name of Alena. Also, the mere possession of a foreign-sounding name that held association with the former British enemy would have been greatly frowned upon by all high society after The Crimean War. Punch magazine and the press still published pictures of the British being dominant in battle over the Russian enemy. Sean suspected therefore, that were a Russian woman ever to marry a British peer of the realm, it would make much sense to describe her nationality as being 'Balkan' instead of 'Russian' and to curtail any Russian surname to one that was less obviously from the eastern bloc and was more English-aristocratic in vowel.

So, Sean Thornton returned to his home town of Portlaw where his search for the mysterious woman could be pursued in more familiar surroundings. His employers at Guinness were extremely pleased with the work that he had done for them over the past four years and paid him the £50,000 final bonus to mark his achievement. However, because he could not honestly verify the Russian claimant of being the oldest person alive with a 100%, certainty, he did not feel able to put his name forward at all. When Sir Hugh Beavers heard of this, he thanked Sean for his honesty and integrity and reminded him that was the very reason he had initially employed him on the task."

'The Guinness Book of Records' was first published in August 1954. One thousand copies were printed and given away. After founding the 'Guinness Book of Records' at 107 Fleet Street, London, the first 197-page edition was bound on 27 August 1955 and went to the top of the British bestseller lists by Christmas.

Despite having being initially intended as a marketing give away, the book was so popular, that the following year it was launched in the U.S. and it sold 70,000 copies. The book became an instant hit and so it soon became necessary to publish a revised edition annually. Sean had proved highly successful in the brief and job specification that he had accepted from Guinness and gratefully received his termination of contract bonus of £50,000 that reflected Sir Hugh's satisfaction.

Sean had been unable to verify the Russian claimant as being the said Erop Borowski and was therefore unable to proclaim him the oldest person in the world, and so no mention of him ever occurred in that first Guinness Book of Records. He died on March 20th, 1957, and according to Sean's inquiries, if he was Erop Borowski, he would have been aged 123 years at the time of his death. Among his few humble possessions left was an old tin mug inscribed with the letter 'E' and Crimean War medals awarded to Erop Borowski for his valour displayed during the Seige of Sevastpol that lasted between September 1854 to September 1855.